"But I bet that the morning, in the morning, we'll find us in bloom…"

I’m All About That Base, ‘Bout That Base (Base Building)

Week two of base building is complete. This week I ran a total of 10 miles. We were also graced with snow and extremely cold temperatures this week. Thursday morning it was -8F with a windchill of -27F when I woke up in the morning. I decided to move my treadmill run to the afternoon so I could avoid going out to early in the cold temperatures.

Very cold night, Gus had the right idea!

Because of the impending snow and cold, I decided to take my Monday run outdoors. It was very cold with a windchill of 0F, but since I only had 2 miles to complete and knew it would probably be my last day outside for the week, I just went for it. It wasn’t too bad given that I was only out there for less than 20 minutes.

Tuesday morning. The roads still weren’t cleared by the time I left for work.

Ironically, last week I said one of my January goals was to not skip any cross-training sessions. Unfortunately Tuesday morning’s snow forced me to skip the gym. The roads were just not in a good condition to go out in the morning. Instead, I did some weight training in the living room so I at least got in half of my morning workout. Here’s what my week looked like:

Unfortunately Saturday morning brought more cold temperatures and the forecast was calling for -5F in the morning, so my group run was cancelled. Back to the gym to hit the treadmill again!

As you can see, I took it really slow this week. My HR is very wonky since taking a break so I’m trying not to push too much, but slower than a 10 minute pace makes my stride clunky and poor. Friday’s Restorative Yoga class was nice and relaxing. If you’ve never done Restorative, it is really focused on breathing and relaxing your body rather than balancing and stretching. The teacher talked a little too much for my liking, but it was a nice way to unwind after my first full week back at work.

I’m hoping I can get a few runs in outside this coming week, but since my weekday runs are still very short I’ll head to the gym if necessary. It’s so early in my training that I’m not trying to be out in overly cold or dangerous temperatures just to get a few miles in – it’s just not worth the risks.